Put down whatever you’re holding and count to 10, one count for each in-breath. Do it now.

 

I did it. I took a medium breath, not super-big like you would do to show off or dive under-water, but big enough to notice, and counted “one”.

 

The goal is to think about your breathing for 10 breaths. You’ll think about other things, of course you will, but by remembering to count, it can bring your focus back to your breathing.

 

I immediately thought about what I was going to write next, this next bit, about how breathing is the one body activity between our conscious and sub-conscious, that we do totally without thinking (like our heart-beat or digestion), but can almost totally control too, unlike our heart-beat or digestion. For some reason, I then thought about how in movies, there are sometimes super-heroes who can stop their heart beating, and then I remembered I had skipped a breath and needed to count “three”.

 

If your attention or focus is like a muscle, this exercise is like a bicep curl, flexing it, bringing it back. But it’s better than that. The fact that you’re breathing deeper, exhaling more CO2 from your lungs can help reduce your blood acidity, reducing anxiety and even pain. Where was I? “Five”.

 

If it’s the same for you, thoughts interrupting all the time, that’s fine.

 

It might be the same for zen monks. They look calm on the outside, but who knows what they’re imagining inside? They could be fighting Shao-lin style against a magical serpent dragon I see in my head as being drawn in black and white Japanese anime-style. And I’m not even at “eight” yet.

 

It’s ok. Any number is the right number to just think about breathing again. I can think about my stomach going out as my diaphragm pulls down to make space in my chest, air rushing in through my nose, before being pushed out again. That’s “nine”.

 

But even if those zen masters do really feel as though they’re floating on clouds, not fighting every stupid thought they get like I have been, it’s because they’ve been practicing so long and hard, and maybe they started like this. Maybe their first session of breath-focused meditation began with ten. With just ten breaths.

 

Please give it a try now.

 

Learning to breathe properly can be life-changing. A minute of good breaths can improve the next 10 minutes, and that can improve the next hour, and that can improve the whole day. Done every day, that could improve your life, but even if it doesn’t, it’s free and takes a minute. That’s a great risk-return scenario.

 

Don’t do anything else immediately after. Maybe another 10 breaths, or just see if you feel a little different, perhaps a little calmer. If you do, just enjoy that sensation for as long as it lasts.